PRETTY HURTS

If you know me, you know I'm not one of those Christians who believe the Devil created certain types of music. I don't believe in listening to only Gospel music (as a matter of fact, many of the Gospel songs promote defeatist mentality and law based theology in my opinion).  With that said, I'm sure many of you will not be surprised by the songs that are promoted on MY blog. 

This morning I saw the video to a beautiful song by Beyonce titled "Pretty Hurts". It's such an insightful song and it addresses one of the biggest problems of our day; self image. We live in a world where everybody is insecure about something; how they look, their weight, their skin colour, the tightness of their clothes... you name it. Take a look around- Television, Radio, talk with your friends and see the pictures of celebrities- they are telling you one simple thing; "you are not good enough, you must-do better, be better, sound better, look better" 

This bombardment leads to us putting all our energies into "bettering ourselves". We take classes, we work on our accent, we do cosmetic surgery, we exercise, we lie about our achievements and so on and so forth. But like the song reveals, you cannot heal the wound of your soul with superficial fixes. No amount of surgery will stop you from feeling indequate, unlovable and ugly. It could mask it and you could bury those feelings really deep, but they will still show up either through blatant self loathing or hateful remarks at others. We fail to realise that these people who keep reminding us of our inadequacies are only projecting their feelings of inadequacy to us. They have found out that it is felt by all and are using it to their advantage; to sell products, set trends and be influential. 

Just to be clear, I have nothing against working on your appearance or educating yourself. What I want is for you to ask yourself 

              "Is my qualification, my appearance e.t.c what I look to determine my worth, or have I      come to realise that I'm worthy, valuable, beautiful, lovely, lovable and loved regardless of            these things?" 

Because that's what the Gospel is about, the Gospel tells us of a God who saw as so worthy, so lovely that he became like us in order to save us. He chose to never be without us and made us partakers of divine nature. We don't have to perform to be valuable, we are valuable because we have been made in the image and likeness of the living God. Yes, we fell, we lost sight of that image, we fell short of the Glory of God and ended up with a distorted image of God and of ourselves. But Jesus came and he saved us and restored the image by making sure that "as he is, so are we in this world". That is the cure to the human condition, that is the assurance of our value. Jesus is our answer.

There is so much more to say about this but i'll just let you enjoy the song. I couldn't get a good copy of the video to add to this blog. But you can watch the official video by clicking on this link. God be with you

THOUGHTS ON EASTER

Hello everyone!!! Happy Easter. Hope you had a splendid time. We had a public holiday from Good Friday till today so it was pretty awesome. Got to spend time with family and friends and eat really nice food, what more can I ask for.

The best part of it is that we get to reflect on the basis of our faith again; the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord Jesus. this is a pivotal aspect of our faith. Too often, I think due to the grotesque nature of his death, we pay a lot of attention to the crucifixion than every other aspect of the atonement. This is dangerous, this overemphasis leads to almost idol worship of the cross. It is Jesus we serve and worship. Not the symbol of his death for our sins.

But the Bible paints a different picture. Paul the Apostle states it thus

^“12 But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? ¹³ If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. ¹⁴ And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.¹⁵ More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised.¹⁶ For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. ¹⁷ And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. ¹⁸ Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. ¹⁹ If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied”….  1 Corinthians 15:12-19

If Jesus had not risen, we have no assurance of our Justification, if he had not risen, we have no inroad into the eternal circle of relationship between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And if he had not risen, it simply would have meant that sin was more powerful than Jesus and death had won. In short, “we are still in our sins”

But praise God that Jesus rose from the dead, never to die again. And he has ascended to the right hand of the Father and taken us right along with him.

I used to wonder, which is more important, the death, the resurrection or the birth of our Lord? I have come to the conclusion that they are all of equal importance. Each event plays a pivotal role in the being of Jesus. However, I strongly believe the resurrection is the event that requires our most rejoicing. It is the culmination of our Lords mission to planet earth. It represents the death of our old man that was condemned by Sin and our newness of life. A life where we can enjoy unbridled fellowship with the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit; free from guilt, condemnation and the constant need to perform at our very best. He loves us just as we are and the resurrection enables us to embrace that love. Therefore, let’s celebrate Easter everyday of our lives, knowing that God has raised Jesus from the dead and we are not in our sins.

May the Grace of our Lord be with you

THE MESSAGE FOR THE UNCHURCHED

Have you ever been told by a Pastor who is trying to justify all the expensive lights and the excellence and professionalism of their Church workers that they are doing these things for the “unchurched”? They believe that the high level of professionalism and the fact that the place of worship looks similar, if not better, than the best night clubs and concerts is what brings in people who want to have nothing to do with Church.

First of all, let me just say that I agree totally that whatever we do as a body, we should do it well. We shouldn’t be seen as sloppy and mediocre. There is a Spirit of excellence that I believe should accompany a believer. When God created the world, he looked at his work and saw that it was good. He never did anything halfway good or a little corrupt (every element of corruption we see now is as a result of Adam’s fall). Therefore, I believe we should be diligent and efficient in all our fields of endeavor. I also believe that when we gather, people who have not been gifted in an area of ministry have no business in that ministry; especially in music, and I believe those that have the gift have a responsibility to get better at it. I also believe that mediocrity can be a big turn off to an unbeliever; where everything looks sloppy, the “unchurched” professional who is used to excellence might not be tempted to come back 

However, I don’t think attracting the unbeliever should be our motivation for excellence. Neither should it be excellence just for the sake of excellence (perfectionism) we are excellent because we do whatever we do as a means of worshipping our Lord. We are not peddlers or salesmen and we certainly are not a business organisation. We are a community saved by Grace and partaking of the Life in the Trinity through our Lord Jesus Christ. And it is that life that the unbeliever sees and wants to partake of. All the lights and stuff can bring in the “unchurched” but it cannot usher them into a relationship with Jesus, it cannot give them life. The unbelievers are not looking for a morally upright place that looks like a club, they’re looking for Life. They might not even know what they’re looking for. They might not be able to articulate the inner longing, but they know there is more to life than flashing lights and money (I know, because I have been an unbeliever before). That is what Jesus came to give us, the relationship with the Godhead that we were created for. This is the deepest and eternal purpose for our existence; to be embraced by God and to embrace him back. And we will not be satisfied until we are enlightened of this glorious truth of the Gospel; that God embraces us, accepts us and will never leave us.

   

This is why I joined the Church. I went to a wooden shack, where you had to take off your shoes and worship barefoot on a floor that wasn’t tiled and had no carpet. But I was accepted for who I was; no one expected me to change before they became friends with me and they gave me a sense of belonging. They loved me in spite of my imperfections and saw the good person in me that I did not even realize. That is the community that all humans long for. Even now, many years later after many of us don’t fellowship in that place any longer. There is a deeper bond and fellowship that defies distance between us. It was there that I began to see the real Jesus through the way I was treated and it was attractive, regardless of the fact that we were doing most things in a very mediocre and unscriptural way. This is what all people long for, and we are attracted and stay in such a place whether it is in an air conditioned room, in someone’s living room over dinner or in a wooden shack, with or without professional singers and ushers. Interestingly, most people that came and complained about the mode of worship or lack of professionalism were Christians (me included) who were comparing the Church to others. Most mega-churches are packed full of Christians cross carpeting from other Churches to a better looking place and unbelievers who just come to have a look at the place. 

 

When we lose sight of what we are and devalue and dilute our message, we find ourselves trying to be like the world in order to win the world over. The truth is that the world has won US over to them. In this scenario, the lights might draw them in but it can’t make them stay. In an attempt to stay “relevant” to the unbeliever, motivational speaking becomes the message of the Church. It becomes a place where you come to hear tips for success spruced with some Bible verses every Sunday and the only catch is you have to “give your life to Christ” for these tips to work. How laughable!! This is why there is almost no difference between believers and unbelievers nowadays. In fact, it seems like some unbelievers are more loving than believers. What do we expect? When we are being taught the world’s way of thinking and succeeding in the cutthroat economy, we end up like the world; ruthless and only concerned with being millionaires. Even our giving is in order to see it multiply a thousand times, so we only “sow” into “fertile soil”. We no longer give because we are generous; it is to satisfy a very self centered purpose.

Let me reiterate that I absolutely believe in doing whatever we are doing well. I have no beef with the lights and the great music and efficiency. But there is more to being a Church than just looking like a well run office. There is a Life we have and a loving fellowship we share- with God and with each other. That is what we offer to the unchurched and the backslidden and nothing should distract us from that.

 I pray the Lord opens your eyes to the reality and beauty of his Church and that his Grace be with you.

BEING HUMAN

“By this you know the Spirit of God; Every Spirit that confesses Jesus as the Christ who has come in the flesh is from God but every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God and this is the spirit of Anti-Christ….” 1 John 4:2-3

“For many deceivers have gone out into the world, people who do not confess Jesus as Christ coming in the flesh. This person is the deceiver and the antichrist…”2 John 1:7

One afternoon, after getting bored with writing arguments and drafting Affidavits, I decided to delight myself with a round of my PC game: “Chinese mahjong”. Expectedly, one round turned into two and then three and then….. you know how it goes. After a while I got stuck in a level and I found myself going over it again and again without completing it. Somewhat frustrated, I suddenly thought to myself “why not ask the Holy Spirit to help you out with this game?” so I did. I said “Holy Spirit, help me finish. Jesus, join me in playing, so we can win.” Just as I had finished saying these words, I got a nudge in my spirit; I could sense Jesus telling me “I was already playing the game with you and as for exercising some sort of divine insight to win, what would be the fun of that?” Wow!!! Good news folks; Jesus loves being human.

There is something about us that makes us want to live superhuman lives; we wish we could fly; we fantasize about having x-ray vision, telepathy, pyrokinetics and so on. We therefore celebrate anyone who looks like they possess these qualities, even if it’s a work of fiction; hence our devotion to characters like Superman, Spiderman, Tony Starks, Edward Cullen and so on.

But we see Jesus and we see a regular guy. He did not possess any supernatural qualities in and of himself. As Jesus, God became totally and irrevocably like us in our fallen state (which is what is meant by God, THE Word becoming ‘Flesh’). Contrary to popular opinion, Jesus never performed any of his miraculous deeds as a result of some “special power” inherent in his DNA. He did all he did in fellowship with the Father by the power of the Holy Spirit. He was born as a baby, and he grew up as a regular child; obedient to his parents and learning new things every day (Luke 2:51-52). He probably had to learn the family business of craftsmanship like everyone else, with many mistakes and missteps. He wasn’t pretending to be Human, he was and is Human. He spent the first thirty years of his life building things and doing nothing extra-ordinary. Now I'm sure he was a very good man and he was sinless, I'm sure people would have regarded his values as a little weird, though good natured but I seriously doubt that he gave life to a dead bird or he healed any of his brothers when they were sick.

Beloved, Jesus did not start being God when he was baptized in the river Jordan and the Holy Spirit descended upon him like a dove. He was God right from when he was born; all through his formative years and the period wherein he was a carpenter. Jesus is the express image of the invisible God; he came to make our God known, to express him and to explain him. And what did this image do? He lived a normal human life for thirty straight years. It doesn't mean that God was imitating humans; rather he was showing us that humans are living out Divine life by being human. He also showed the type of total trust and fellowship with the Father that a normal Human was designed to have. We were not created to try and conjure up spiritual power or strengthen ourselves, we were made to draw from His strength and let God be God in our lives.

When we realize that God is not only with us in our human activities, but that we are participating in his life while engaging in human activities, it gives our lives a whole new meaning. Just knowing that God, in the person of Jesus is with me; expressing his life through me when I chat with friends, do my job and even watch a movie tends to magnify the pleasure from those things a million times more. It also makes me realize the importance of what I do and how I live my life. I realize that my humanity is not to be discarded, but to be embraced and enjoyed; because God enjoys it. Hence, we are told to do whatever we are doing in Christ.

There is nothing wrong with being human, we were made by God and he doesn’t make mistakes. If there was a mistake, Jesus would not have remained human in his resurrection. He could have shed his skin and become another entity. That would have meant that our salvation included a transformation into something else, like a being of light; that is a form of heresy called Gnosticism and as we have read in the quotations above, any denial of Jesus’ humanity is a plunge into heresy and anyone who teaches such things is an Anti-Christ.

Please note that I absolutely believe in the supernatural. I also believe the Holy Spirit will teach us all things and will do wondrous things through us. I just don't believe we should look down on our humanity and expect to be transformed into some other type of being, and I believe Jesus has a lot of fun with being human

So enjoy your life, relish the legitimate pleasures of humanity and may the Grace of our Lord Jesus be with you forever

ROMANIA AND OTHER THINGS

Hey there!! If you have been following this blog you’d notice that there has been a silence for quite a while now. Well, it was not intentional. Certain things had to be done and it involved lots of preparation so I was temporarily unable to sit down and write.

One of the things that needed my attention was my trip to Romania. My lovely sister graduated from Medical School in Bucharest so we all went to celebrate with her. I spent two weeks with her over there. Incidentally, she has also planted a Church in Romania and another fellowship too. They decided that since it was a holiday period for the students, they would hold a one-day conference. It was tagged “Justified”. Well, it was a wonderful meeting in a beautiful hotel. I was invited to be the guest minister and the Lord really moved in the hearts of people. We also had the chance to answer peoples’ questions after the message, which is a really good thing. Afterwards there was music and partying and as is with students all around the world, the party didn’t stop until the deejay shut down. All in all it was nice. 

my lovely sister Rolly

I also got the opportunity to preach in another Church on a Sunday where I shared the Gospel from the perspective of the value of man; I so much wish we had recorded that meeting. In addition to this, I got to meet and make friends with people who are also growing in grace and it was nice to be around people of other cultures. For pictures of the conference please follow this link to their facebook page, Justified and please like their page

It’s so wonderful that our God would create us in such a way that in Jesus we are all one and yet we will never lose our uniqueness, our spark, that factor in our personality that makes us different from everybody else. Of course this is very much in keeping with the nature of God himself i.e. Trinity; our one God is three persons: Father, Son, and Spirit. Each one of these persons is not the other but each one is God. And within the Trinity is perfect love, perfect harmony, perfect joy and perfect unity. They are ONE, yet they do not lose themselves in one another. It is a mystery; a divine logic beyond the realms of logic. Yet, that is what we see in humanity too, in Christ, he has made humanity to mirror their life and their logic

Let me just say that I'm really proud of my sister; Not only is she a Medical Doctor, she has also set up the foundations for the Gospel of Grace to spread in her own world. That is commendable. I'm also proud of all those who have joined her in this work and most of all I'm happy to have made friends with them, beyond ministry you are my friends and I know we will have a swell time on this journey together.

Till next time, may the Grace of our Lord be with you

THE LORD WHO LOVES US

“Have you noticed that even though you call me ‘Lord’ and ‘King’; I have never really acted in that capacity with you? I’ve never taken control of your choices or forced you to do anything, even when what you were about to do was destructive or hurtful to yourself and others”…

-Jesus in “The Shack” by WM. Paul Young

I am continuing on my thoughts on the Lordship of Jesus from my last post. I love Paul Young, he expresses in one Novel volumes of theological thinking in a way that is understandable and that hits the main point of the Gospel home i.e. God; the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit loves you. And in the passage from his book that I quoted above, he drove home one simple fact; Love does not force its way.

Like I said in my last post, Jesus is Lord over everything and everyone. That is the Gospel we proclaim; the arrival of a new Emperor who has all authority and power in his hands. The good news about it is that this Emperor is on our side. He loves us deeply and dearly and wants us to partake of everything he’s got! Unlike the emperors and Kingdoms of this world who go about imposing their will on their subjects and forcing everyone in their path to either bow or be beheaded, this King decides to pick ragtag men from unlikely places (The Apostles, lowly Gentiles) and sends them into the ends of the Earth with one message; Jesus is Lord and he wants you to reign with him.

For approximately Two Thousand and Twelve years he has watched his brothers shun him, denounce him, kill his emissaries and followers and make a mess of the World he created. Yet he does not act in force, he does not destroy nations, he does not punish them, neither does he engage in a great act of wonder to make himself known to the World and to force his will to be done on Earth. He does not turn us into robots that obey his every word without questioning it.

Why is he like that? Because he is Love, and Love is patient and it is not self serving. He does not force his way because Love does not operate that way. So even though he is Lord of all things (and whether we like it or not, that is who he is), he will never ‘Lord it over us’. He will speak his mind and give instructions but if you choose to disobey, He will always respect your choice and the consequence of your actions. When you repent of your choice and turn to him for deliverance, he will deliver you instantly because he is bigger than your mistakes and he loves you. He will never bring that mistake to remembrance between the two of you because Love keeps no records of wrongs. Even if you disobey again and start the cycle all over again, he will keep doing the same thing; advising, respecting and delivering until you are ready to move on and get healed.

This is why I believe in Hell, I don’t believe it is the place where Jesus punishes those that reject his Lordship and banishes them from his presence; I believe it is a place where people exile themselves in a futile bid to run away from his presence and rebel against him (in case you’re not aware, it is physically impossible for a place to exist where God is not present, everything is in God; specifically Jesus). Whether or not there will be any such people is left to be seen and I will not speculate on that issue by giving a general statement for or against it. I’d rather stay on the side of Christ and say whatever choice you make will be respected, whatever torment you suffer as a result of that choice is still your choice. But God will not stop loving you, chasing you and drawing you unto himself. He has made the way open for all men to engage in a relationship with him but a relationship is always a two way street, even for the Lord.

WHEN WORDS STING

There are times in every relationship where words get spoken by the other party that sting or stick to the memory of the person being spoken to. Whether or not such words were meant to inflict the sting is immaterial, the fact is the deed has been done. The words have been spoken (sometimes foolishly).

I find such times to be very troubling; especially when it is my wife that has spoken such words. Sometimes men can just be oversensitive, we take certain things too far and regard every suggestion by our women as a bruise on our ego (Although i must admit women DO take words very seriously for the most part) anyway, people generally do not like being spoken to in a bad way. Words are very powerful and they have a way of affecting us very strongly, sometimes even more than physical assault. As a result, we find ourselves lashing out at the person; one way or another. Even when we say we won’t lash out and we repress it. The best solution is to talk to the person about it and let the cards fall where they may. The problem is that is easier said than done

In my case, I find it hard to say I’ve been hurt by words. I’m not a talkative person (which is why I know that it is only by the Grace of God that I preach) and I find myself repressing a lot of feelings. But repression will not stop us from ruminating on the words; turning them over; thinking of all the witty replies to the statement; all the flaws to the statement; all the reasons why what she said proves that she does not have my back…. This kind of thing can go on in my mind for the whole day!!! If unchecked, this kind of thinking can take root and become a very deep seated bitterness and resentment towards the person. You find yourself subconsciously seeking justice and unknowingly punishing the person for saying something they didn’t mean to be understood that way.

 If you are like me in this department, I have come to understand one simple fact- THE PERSON YOU’RE THINKING ABOUT IS COMPLETELY OBLIVIOUS OF THE FACT THAT YOU’RE UPSET. They probably would have never in their wildest dreams imagined that those words would have had that effect on you. They most likely did not mean it that way. The other person is either lying next to you enjoying a good night sleep, or at work doing their own thing while you’re there philosophizing on a forgotten statement for hours. In addition, even if the words were made to hurt, the purpose has been accomplished by your allowing it to affect you that much. You have given the person the satisfaction of hurting you

We should also recognize that we are all broken in some way; even when we realize our identity and completeness in Christ, we have a lot of mind renewal to undergo. So we have two or three people who have issues of their own trying to live life together, surely stupid things will be said

The reason we hurt so much is because we have come to depend on this person for our happiness, so we don’t even love them because we love them anymore- we love them because we want them to love us back. However, to become dependent on a loved one makes it impossible for us to truly love that person. When we live our lives needing their approval, their respect and their love, we make it impossible to be honest with them and to be free to just love them.

The truth is, man was designed to be loved, approved and affirmed; we just weren’t designed to seek it from one another. God made us to live in His Love, His approval and His affirmation. Just like Jesus did. When he stepped out of the waters of baptism, he received the Holy Spirit and the words of his Father calling him “beloved” and the one in whom he was “well pleased”. On the strength of that statement, he went and conquered Satan. Beloved, God is saying the same to you too right now; He loves you, approves of you and sees you as pleasing. On the strength of that, we go out and love others. Like John said, “We love because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). That way, we can be honest with people around us and actually tell them when we were hurt and let the cards lie where they may. We will also be able to look beyond ourselves and see things from the other person’s point of view; most times the other party has a point. Then the healing can really begin

Now I am not undermining the pain of hurtful words, neither am i in anyway condoning abusive words in a relationship of any kind (if you're a victim of abuse please realize your freedom in God from the shackles of that abuser). This post is dealing mostly with just everyday stings of words and arguments that occur between two people who genuinely love each other and are working at having a healthy relationship 

May the Grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.